The Fragility of Progress: An Interpretation of the Turn Toward Meaning in Eisenstadt's Later Work

Abstract

In its earlier phases, S. N. Eisenstadt's work revised functionalist theory by focusing on institutions and group interests and on the contingent nature of historical change. In the last decade, as his work has moved from social system to civilizational analysis, Eisenstadt has focused increasingly on the independent role of cultural codes and intellectual carrier groups as instigators of broad social change. In place of institutional strains it is now tensions internal to the cultural maps of diverse civilizations that initially instigate resistance and social movements. There has been a corresponding shift in Eisenstadt's view of modernity, which he now describes as an inherently fragile social order whose very premises stipulate explosive and endemic efforts to supersede the institutional and cultural frameworks of contemporary social life.